


New Orleans

by Morpheus626



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626
Summary: Spooky stuff is my usual brand of original writing, but I decided to try and toss it in with one of my Sledgefu prompts. Think it turned out okay-kinda spooky/sweet, if you will.
Relationships: Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	New Orleans

Eugene normally would have held himself together better, been a little bit more responsible. But Snafu was right-New Orleans was beautiful, and the best place for a good time. It didn’t make it any better that they were stumbling drunk down a side road, being entirely too loud but it explained it at least. 

Snafu was hanging off of him, peppering him with kisses and letting his hands roam whenever the road they were on was empty of others. The trip had been his idea, and while Eugene knew he might never admit to missing the city, he clearly had. He was plenty happy back home in Maryland, but he was just as happy here. 

They neared a cemetery, and suddenly he was far less jovial. 

“You see someone?” Eugene asked, moving his hand from where he’d been struggling to undo another of the buttons on Snafu’s shirt. 

Snafu shook his head. “Jus’ be quiet. Respectful. And don’t look in there.” 

“This some local superstition? We had those too in Mobile, y’know,” Eugene replied as he wrapped an arm tighter around Snafu’s waist. “I’ll keep you safe.” 

“I know you don’t wanna take this serious, but-” Snafu caught his gaze and held it tight in his dark eyes. “This one is real. So just do as I say, okay?” 

“Hey,” Eugene stopped and pulled Snafu close to him. “You don’t gotta worry, okay? I’m here.”

“I know, Sledgehammer. But this ain’t something you can shoot or punch, so save that bravado for another day,” Snafu replied with a gentle kiss. “C’mon. Don’t like bein’ near here so long. You don’t linger here.” 

“You can’t just not tell me why,” Eugene whined. He couldn’t help it, he was curious. He’d heard tales that cities like this were all haunted in their own way, but there had to be a specific tale behind this.

“Fine,” Snafu sighed, tightening his grip on Eugene’s hand as they stepped onward past the cemetery’s walls. “Was before I shipped out. There’s always been a story that you might see someone out here. Depends on who you see as to what it means. You see a long-dead family member who ain’t even buried here? Expect a death in the family within the week. See something not entirely human? Better not make eye contact, and say your prayers at night, and hope it didn’t follow you home. See yourself, but lookin’ deader than a doorknob? Well-” 

Eugene winced as Snafu’s grip tightened something painful. “Is that what you saw?”

Snafu nodded as they reached the cemetery gates. “Supposed to mean you’re gonna die. Figured I’d be shot down the first place I stepped foot at after I was shipped out. But I made it back.” 

“Then you proved there’s no water to it,” Eugene said softly. “Just an old story to keep kids from wandering round too late at night. Like I said, we got our own versions in Mobile. Every place does, I reckon.” 

“There’s other things though,” Snafu said. “Ghost soldiers and widows and brides and children and-” 

His eyes were wide, like they’d been back in the foxholes under the worst fire. His nails were digging into Eugene’s skin, but Eugene figured he wasn’t meaning to do it. 

“Hey, stop for a minute,” Eugene said. They were square at the center of the gates. 

Snafu shook his head and tried to pull him along. “You don’t stop here, Eugene. It is three in the morning, and we are not the only ones out here.” 

“I know, the last bar we were in was packed. Lots of people out tonight having a good time,” Eugene replied, pulled Snafu close again. “You’re fine, I swear. We’ll get back to the hotel, get some sleep, and–” 

His voice caught in his throat. Two soldiers, not quite fully material, and very evidently not from the current war judging by their uniforms, were walking towards them, right through the closed and locked gate. 

Snafu had one hand tight around Eugene’s waist, the other curled into a fist, like he couldn’t quite decide between fighting or fleeing. 

Eugene suddenly hated himself for playing off Snafu’s fears. This served him right, if anything. He kept a firm hold on Snafu as the soldiers slowly walked around them, and he could get a better look at them. 

The uniforms, now that he could make them out better, were from the Great War, and were covered in blood. The men’s faces bore extensive scars, burns, and cuts, from exactly what Eugene didn’t want to imagine-he’d seen what the weapons had done to men in the Pacific. 

But they were smiling. 

Slowly, Eugene let go of Snafu till they were only holding hands, and held his breath as one of the soldiers gestured to the ring on his ring finger. 

“Uh, we-” He tried, but his voice was still stuck. 

The other soldier had reached out and pulled Snafu’s hand from his, to inspect the ring on his ring finger. Snafu’s hand was shaking. 

They stepped away after a moment and faced them, still smiling. 

Snafu was glued to his side again, and it was a wild thing. Snafu had always seemed somewhat fearless, aside from the nightmares and flashbacks they both suffered from. 

The two soldiers seemed to realize the effect they were having, and grabbed each others hands, then gestured to Eugene and Snafu’s. 

It took a moment to click. “Snafu, I think…they get it. They’re, y’know-” 

“Oh,” Snafu said so quiet it was nearly a whisper. “Are they…giving us their blessing or something, I don’t…” 

The confusion was cleared up a moment later as the soldiers walked forward and wrapped them both in very cold hugs. It was only then that Eugene somehow got words from them, in voices that he wasn’t sure how he could hear that sounded so far away. He couldn’t place exactly how they said it, hazy as it all was, but it was gratitude-for their service, and for them living as they were-as open as they could, all things considered. There was more there, perhaps regret at not making it and not being able to do the same, but it was all kind and soft and happy even so. 

The soldiers moved past them back through the gate, and then were gone. 

Snafu collapsed against him. “That was…” 

“Yeah,” Eugene agreed, now stone-cold sober. “They meant well though. It was sweet, in a terrifying way.” 

“You got that right,” Snafu said as he slowly straightened up. “Goddamn I need another drink now.” 

“At the hotel though, right?” Eugene said. He could hear his voice shaking as he let Snafu pull him by the hand away from the cemetery and down the dark road. 

“Of course. Not stayin’ out here a second longer, no matter how nice the ghosts are. Gonna piss myself if we see anythin’ else,” he replied. 

Later, safe in the hotel, they would both admit that it had been a strangely good encounter, if one had to encounter ghosts at all. But for the rest of the walk to the hotel, Eugene found himself sticking to Snafu as tightly as he could, each sound making him jump. 

Snafu had said everyone had a story or two from visiting New Orleans, that he had delighted in hearing them when he was a kid running around the city. They certainly had theirs now.


End file.
